England News

• Nickname:Three Lions
• Founded: 1872
• Manager:Roy Hodgson

• Ground:Wembley Stadium
• Capacity:90,000

Robinson's turf war

12 Oct 2006 - 09:24:02

Click To Enlarge

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson was despondent after his mistake put the seal on a miserable evening in Zagreb, as England slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Croatia.

Robinson's air shot at Gary Neville's backpass ensured a first defeat for England under the stewardship of Steve McClaren, with the Spurs keeper admitting that the error had proved costly.

He said afterwards: "It was a freak goal.

"It happened where the Croatian goalkeeper was taking his kicks and it left divots in the pitch.

"He had been taking goal-kicks in the first half and there were huge holes in the pitch.

"I went to kick Gary's pass, there was a bobble and then the ball wasn't there. It was an absolute freak and there was nothing I could do about it."

Neville, who suffered the indignation of being credited with the own goal, told Sky Sports News: "If there is a criticism of me, you are told as a youngster to pass away from the goal when passing back to your goalkeeper.

"But I think that it was definitely a freak thing.

"It has happened one or two times over the last five or ten years and I think it is where the keepers dig their own divots for setting the ball up for their own goal kicks.

"It just flipped up off that and I don't think there is anything anyone could have done about that one."